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Sunday, January 22, 2012

FULANI : "LIBYAN" PASTORALISTS OF THE NEOLITHIC SAHARA

The Fulani/Fulata, or "Fulitani" of the Roman writers, preserve an ancient pastoral nomadic and dyingculture in modern Africa. Men of this Fulani group called Woodabe often reach 7 feet in height according to Werner Herzog. Woodabe Geerewol dance

This post by Dana W. Reynolds is dedicated to the Fulani ancestors of so many African Americans - a people
with an ancient culture whom according to European colonialists "never retreated in battle".

Woodabe-Fulani man in traditional turban

This High priest of the "Libyan" tribe of Meshwesh discovered in royal Egyptian tomb of the Libyan Pharaoh Psusennes is reminiscent of Fulani men

The
peoples best known as Fulani, Felata, Fulbe, Pullo or Peul in French are a pastoral cattle
herding and farming ethnic group spread across the Sahara, Sahel and Sudan as far as between Mauritania Guinea and Ethiopia. Today in different regions the
Fulani ethnic and linguistic population is thought to include up to as many as 15,000,000 people.

One peculiarity found among the lesser
modified or “red Fulani”, such as the Wodaabe (who preserve to a great extent the original Fulani appearance and lifestyle),
was pointed out by Werner Herzog in his documentary “Herdsmen of the Sun”. There is a tendency to great height or stature. Apparently many of the
men of the northern Fulani groups as with the Tuareg frequently reach 7 feet
in height and over, something historians tend to forget, or are not always aware of
when assessing "Fulani" origins.

Modern Fulani young woman of the Wodaabe group

The original Fulani appear to have been fairly widespread in North and
Saharan Africa from a very ancient period. They are probably mentioned in
northern Algeria
or what was considered Mauritania Caesarea as the Fulitani or Barzu Fulitani on
the late 4th map of Julius Honorius (Mommsen 1867, p. 28 and 62). They
are also mentioned as having come down a few centuries later from the Tichit region
by the Tariq es-Sudan written in the 1600s.
They, thus are likely the Warith/Wariz (a probable variant of
Barzu) said to have been pushed down from the Mauretanian
Adrar region by the Arab Quraishi conqueror, Uqba ibn Nafi and converted to
Islam.

As for the Banu Warith or Waritan of the medeival period, they are
described as a clan of the Sanhaja or of
the Geddula or Banu Joddala Berbers ( the latter were considered by that time a branch of the
Sanhaja) by Arabized writers such as Ibn Hawqal and El Bekri and others. (Levtsion
and Hopkins,
2000, pp. 50, 67, 237; Palmer, 1970, p. 61)

By the 10th
century and 11th century Fulani were living amongst several peoples
of other Nilo-Saharan groups who had mixed with and adopted the dialect of Niger-Congo
groups in kingdoms of the Sudan.
The Fulani gradually spread as far east as Ethiopia
where they are known as Bororo and from Mauretania across Senegambia along the
West African costs and savannah they spread to places like the Ivory Coast, Benin,
Togo and Burkina Faso, but appear to have been the same adversaries appearing in ancient Egyptian tomb paintings of the time of Seti and called Tjehenu.

Many
of the groups that today speak the Fulbe, Fulfulde or Pulaagu dialects are in
fact a mixture of the original Fula or Fulitani and these various Songhai and Mande ethnic groups. They are also associated
with the people and place name Futa or Futabe.
A good example of such groups are the Toucouleur, formed and perhaps
named from the Takruri and Fulani who had come to occupy the region of Futa
Toro and Futa Jallon. In the northern Sahel
and Sahara the group preserving the earliest
Fulani lifestyle are known in Western texts “Wodaabe”a variant of the earlier
Futa-be.

Although the
Fulani had been mainly vassals in the early Sudanic kingdoms of Songhai and Ghana, by the
1500s the Fulani were at Macina/Massina in the Middle Niger river region in Mali. They
are associated with coming to occupy and dominate the Empire called Sokoto and kingdom of Bornu originally founded by peoples of
Nilo-Saharan and Tuareg ethnicity.

FULANI OF MODERN MALI

The origins of
the Fulani have stir some lasting controversy over the last several decades due
to their physical appearance or phenotype, Arabic records concerning their
origins, the presence of Zebu cattle thought to be native to India, certain
inconsistencies with regard to their phenotype and their current linguistic
affinities which were thought to not match their phenotype. Due to European
colonialist ideas about indigenous African origins and especially North African
“racial” origins, the notion has gradually evolved – as it has with the Tuareg and
other dark-skinned Africans once prevalent in North Africa
- that their ethnic roots were
“enigmatic” or “unknown”. Yet, in fact, the earliest Fulani were one of the few
peoples for which there is an abundance of evidence for origins in the Sahara
oases and North Africa since the Neolithic.
The evidence is both archeological and anthropological and tends to show that
original Fulani population belonged to a group of neolithic pastoralists in the
central and northern Sahara who were spread to Kharga, Kerma and possibly
further east in Africa in later times. They
appear to have been among the first people to be known to ancient Egyptians as under
the names Tjehenu or Temehou.

Their
presence in stone age north Africa probably led to contact with other groups as
far back as the late stone age which has led to their current so–called
non-African features such as notably lengthy and less frizzly hair than other
west African tribes and perhaps the introduction of a curvature to their
innately narrow long noses.

Typical faces of Woodabe Fulani

As for
the current linguistic situation of the Fulani, it should be said that there
are many peoples in Africa that over the past
2,000 years have adopted dialects foreign to their own that subsequently evolved
into newer forms. This has happened for various reasons, often due to trade or immigration. A good example is the current situation of North Africa where many groups of varied ethnicity and
diverse biological origin over the last 2,000 years have adopted either the
Arabic or Berber dialects and claim either Arabic or Berber origin or
nationality today. At one time Berbers themselves were said to have been
largely “Romanized” while now it appears descendants of Romans, Vandals, Scythians,
Central Asians and other peoples who have settled in North Africa (or have
otherwise been brought in) have themselves been somewhat Berberized and
Arabized through admixture and adopting of certain linguistic and cultural
patterns and mores.

The Nilo-Saharans are an example of indigenous
Africans who are known to have mixed with and adopted Niger-Congo dialects of
the Atlantic branch, becoming the Sarakholle, Serer, Soninke, Djallonke,
Jahanke and other groups now designated “Mande” or “Mandinke”. Thus, the fact
that certain groups now speak a specific dialect doesn’t always say much about
their cultural origins.

Due largely to Fulani
physical appearance and culture, early colonial observers viewed them as part
of an imagined great warlike “Caucasoid” race near black in complexion which
they called “hamitic” that had amalgamated with what they called “Negro” tribes. This idea was spurred and
bolstered by the fact that when colonialists first encountered Fulani in the
Sudan they were often viewed by other Africans as a separate, lighter-skinned caste
in places like the region of Massina where they were even described as “whites”
by their own and in Arabic writings (a description that is used in Africa for
many black African groups that are somewhat dark brown in tint rather than
black or brown black).

Furthermore, in
many places there was a certain ethnic rivalry between Fulani and other groups
as is common between more nomadic and more settled agricultural peoples in Africa. And these tensions (which haven’t completely disappeared
in Africa since they were aggravated by European colonialist notions) in
various regions was often attributed to “racial “differences between the
“lighter-skinned” “nobles’ of “hamitic stock” and the so-called “black African”
or “Negro” agriculturalists.

Woodabe couple

Of course Africa is made up of diverse populations of various complexion and phenotype from the yellow brown of the San and Kung Bushmen to the blue black of some Nilotic groups, and copper or bronze brown of certain Fulani and Beja. None of these groups can obviously be considered more black or African than the other as each has specialized development that has led to their particular phenotype.

That being said,
it is true that the Fulani especially the northern Fulani like the Woodabe often
have a lighter caste to their skin than African tribes they live amongst and very
often preserve features that are similar to the Nilo-Saharans and Cushitic
speakers further much further east. The latter also often have a complexion
that is often more of a dark copper brown than it is black brown. Still the
Fulani were and are one of the major African groups contributing to the
ancestry of blacks in the Americas
(until recently known as “Negroes”), a fact that is now being confirmed by
genetics, but was already established from colonial records in the U.S. and
elsewhere. Thus, the conception of them as a “non-black” African group, as had
been commonly suggested was a bit silly to entertain – and disingenuous, to say
the least.

Fulani man stands in front of his herd of cattle

Fulani came in large numbers to America during the Atlantic slave trade and have
been said by scholar Sterling Stuckey to have greatly influenced the
cowboy and cattle culture in the United States. They have been cattle and sheep herdsmen for thousands of years and have kept many traditions alive. Herdsmen often affectionately name each member of their herd and know each by name. Cattle were not slaughtered for their meat, but useful for their milk and other things. Long ago the ancestors of the Fulani and related people came to make the cow a symbolic of their gods in the Sahara and along the Nile.

Yarrow Mahmoud - Fulani man in the U.S. who had won freedom lived in Washington, D.C.

Abdul Rahman Ibrahim ibn Sori-former U.S. slave

Abdul-Rahman (above) had been a student at Timbuktu (Tin Buqti) even then a world famous capital of learning in Mali. But he fell into hard times after serving as a leader in battle under his father against an enemy tribe. After being ambushed by his enemies with some of his war party on the way back to his father, he was sold as a prisoner of war by an enemy tribe. Like numerous other Fulani - Abdul-Rahman was brought to America by slavers. The year was 1788, and he was 26 years old. He spent the next 40 years as a slave and slave overseer in Mississippi. He won his freedom and liberated his family moving to Liberia where he fell ill and died only a few months later.

Like the
Tuareg, the Fulani were admired by colonialists for what were perceived as cultural
traits traceable to their “white hamite” origins. They were perceived as being
more war-like than the more agricultural groups who were darker-skinned and
known and praised for such values as “never turning back” in battle. There was
also the fact that the colonialists who met the Fulani ruling elites found them
to have profiles and coloring rather like those of the ancient “Egyptians”.
They were never hesitant about commenting on the coiffures of Fulani men which they
found to be curiously similar or identical to those of the ancient “Libyan” men
portrayed in the tombs of Seti and other early Egyptian pharaohs.

Several early
authors documented this habit of wearing the hair among the Fulani, consisting
of long plaits with long curled sidelocks worn by the ruling class of 19th
century Massina (in what is now Mali),
as well as places in Chad. Speaking of the Fulani rulers of Massina or Macina,
Ignatius Donnelly wrote in his 1882 book, Atlantis:
The Antediluvian World, that in “Soudan, on the banks of the Niger,
dwells a negro tribe ruled by a royal family (Masas), who are of
rather fair complexion, and claim descent from white men…the Masas wear their
hair in the same fashion as the Tamahus” (Donnelly & Sykes, 2003, p. 182). The
“Negro” tribe in this case were the Mande population. Unfortunately this habit of weargin long curled locks is more characteristic of women than men today but is represented in many ancient Egyptian portayals of the people dwelling in oases adjacent to the Nile.

The ancient face of the earliest Libou/Tehenou men are often captured in modern Wodaabe faces

Ancient "Libyans" with sidelocks as they exist on 19th dynasty tomb of Seti

Some early
scholars were evidently misled by the
portrayals of Libyans by the 19th century Richard Lepsius who in his
canon for reasons which are not quite clear or perhaps all too clear, seems to
have rendered the ancient Libyans of a particular tomb in a tint much lighter
than they appeared in the actual painting. Other scholars appear not to be
aware that the ancient use of the term Tamahou or Tjemehou was originally used
exclusively for the dark brown people of the Kharga and the other southern oases as
(the name first appears in the 6th dynasty) and only much later for
westerners in general including the rather mixed conglomeration of “Sea
peoples”.

Caricatures of the ancient Libyans repainted to look like Europeans with beards and African hairstyles

CARTOONISH RENDITION OF THE LIBYANS

Another strangely distorted and unrealistic or fantastical depiction of a "Libyan" by Richard Lepsius that is wrongly said to appear in an ancient Egyptian tomb

The above renderings are probably an attempt by some Egyptologists to mold the Libyans into the famous "Hamitic caucasoids" of colonialist fantasy. But the Libyans that appear in the tombs they are said to come from only appear either in a very dark color of the modern Fulani and Maasai or else like those below.

True to life painting from the New Kingdom dynasties of Egypt.

Even with the dark paint brown paint fading from their skins and the black from black plaited hair and side locks, one sees their "true colors" and the African origins of these rather late Libyans are evident.

Another
archeologist named Oric Bates author of a foundational work known as The
Eastern Libyans, also commented on these hairstyle similarities saying “the
Fulbe or Fulahs of the Chad-zone sometimes braid the hair in a manner which
strikingly recalls the Libyans of the monuments” (Bates, 1914, p. 136).

Individuals possibly sporting the Fulani sidelocks on the neolithic rock art of Kidal in the Adrar region of Mali. Sidelocks are not commonly seen on Fulani today as they were in the days of colonialist observers.

Furthermore, it was not only the hairstyles, but the complexion, the attire,
hats, feathers and designs in their costumes and tattoos, as well, which seemed to link them to certain of the
early peoples settled in Libyan oases next to Egypt (in places like Kharga and
Dakhla) and Nubia since Neolithic times.

Specialist Marion von Offelen in the more
recent Nomads of Niger also
noted resemblances in the attire and clothing designs of the present Woodabe
group of Fulani to attire and tattoos designs on the “Libyans” of 19th
dynasty tomb paintings of Seti (Van Offelen & Beckwith, 1984, p. 177). The
details of these elaborate designs are obviously too alike to be just
coincidence.

Elaborate designs on the this Fulani young man's attire go back thousands of years in Saharan art and ancient Egyptian potrayals of the New kingdom Libyans. The designs have a special significance.

However, what clinches the case is the well
documented archaeological connection of the early people of the oases like Kharga
and similar peoples in Nubia
to some of the pastoral nomads in earlier eastern and central Saharan rock art
of the Neolithic. Bates long ago noted that on Fulani garments were also the
same designs that appear on the C group pottery of Kerma, (Bates, p. 251). As
well archaeologist David Phillipson noted the archaeology of C-group
pastoralists suggests a Saharan origin. (Phillipson, 1977, p.66). These connections are not only strong
at Kharga and Wadi Howar, but at Tassili and Annadi, Tibesti, Air,
Ahaggar/Hoggar, Jebel Uweinat, Gilf Kebir and Wadi Djerat where the paintings
date back to the neolithic period known to art historians and archeologists as
the “Bovidian” dating back to the 3rd and 4th millenniums
B.C.

Rock art from the Algerian Sahara- individuals fix their hair or turbans

Women of the Fulani today continue to wear long side locks and ancient Saharan hairstyles.

Ancient inhabitants of Tassili in Algeria appear to sport the modern Fulani bun hairstyle

This is an area stretching from Algeria and Niger
to Libya Sudan, and Chad
where cattle in rock art with horns artificially deformed and cattle pendants
typical of those of the C-group population of Nubia have been discovered. Gabriel
Camps attributes these practices to C-group Nubian influence rather than vice
versa. The two groups most characteristically associated with these paintings
of “Bovidian” pastoralists according to Camps resemble the “tall” slender
Fulani, and the smaller built populations called euphemistically brown or
gracile Mediterranean man of Nubia (A and C-group), Egypt and the countries of
the Horn i.e. the ancestors of many Nilo-Saharan, Afroasiatics or Cushitic-speakers
(Camps, 1982, pp. 574-575)

Aside from Camps, numerous
archeologists and rock art specialists of both European and African descent
have noted that many elements in Fulani culture, from the type of huts to their
current rituals and hair styles and profiles, seem to be depicted in some of
the very early pastoralist art work of Saharan oases stretching into the Central Sahara. The Fulani anthropologist Amadou Hampate
Ba along with Germaine Dieterlen, authors of the article, “The Frescos of the Bovidian epoch in Tassili n'Ajjer and Traditions of the
Peul” thought they had identified similarities between rituals and
ceremonies shown in some of the rock paintings and those practiced by certain
of the Fulani of today (Hampate Ba & Dieterlen, 1966, pp. 151-157).

J. Hiernaux, a noted specialist on ancient rock art or frescoes of
neolithic Saharan pastoralists also expressed an opinion on this. He was struck
by similarities of the crest headgear and bun hairstyle in pastoral rock art of
the Hoggar and Tassili and those of Fulani men and women of Macina/Massina near
the Niger.
The large lyre-shaped horns, so typical of the bovine figures, carvings and
cave paintings are found especially in the Bororo Fulani herds.

At Jabbaren where Bovidian rock art dates back to the 4th millennium the artists have depicted a practice maintained by the
Fulani of transporting the armature of huts, and the head gear, cattle, clothing
and most typical physical characteristics of human figures of the pastoral
period resemble the present day Fulani. These were undoubtedly similar to the early people who first appeared in the Fayum as Tjehenu in the Old Kingdom.

Modern Fulani man of Nigeria

The skin color of many Fulani has often been commented on by colonial scholars.

Libyan or "Tjehenu" man from the Old Kingdom era of Egypt wears characteristic "crossbands"

Modern crossbands of young Fulani men

More recently scholars like J.L. Quellec in "Les Gravures Rupestre in Fezzan" have spoken of the numerous connections between C-group Nubians and ancient occupants of the Fezzan (Quellec, 1985, p. 373). These connections likely corroborate why ancient Libyans in Egyptian tomb paintings were found by Bates to wear tattoo designs similar to those present on C-group pottery.

Interestingly, modern Fulani also sport at
times a hairstyle in which the hair is left long in the back and head shaved in
the front, similar to the description of the hairstyle worn by the ancient
Machlyes of ancient Libya
who according to Herodotus spread to the river Triton in the Syrtic region.

The ancient Machyles "Libyans" (Northeast Africans) of Lake Triton let their hair "grow long in the back of the head". Herodotus 5th century B.C., Book 4.180.1

The
women of the Machlyes were said to have practiced mock ritual battle with the
neighboring women of the Auseans, in honor of their deitesse Minerva or Pallas Athena.
According to the Greeks, the ancestor of the Libyan Machlyes, the Psylli and the Adyrmakidae of both Nubia and Libya was Amphithemis, son of Acalle
(or Acacallis) the daugther of Minos, son of Triton, the water nymph.

See our new blog Great Africanists
http://greatafricanists.blogspot.com/

Reynolds, D. W.
(199). The African heritage and
ethnohistory of the Moors: Background to the emergence of early Berber and Arab
peoples, from prehistory to the Islamic dynasties. In Golden Age of the
Moors, Journal of African Civcilizations Vol. II Fall 1991.

(Please feel free to make copies in case anything disappears. There are many people that publish, or copy and paste the information from this blog onto other sites. However, as a person with multicultural interests and background, I would appreciate if the above text is not copied and pasted without quotes under pseudonyms, or anonymously, to other web-sites in combination with trading curses or using abusive language with other individuals, or else, verbally insulting, denigrating, or attempting to dehumanize various ethnic groups, i.e., "white people", Europeans, "Arabs", " Jews", "Turks", Israelis, etc. Please do not modify or add to text directly copied or taken from this site. Thanks in advance for your consideration. : )

22 comments:

Anonymous
said...

i like the post and i'm curious about the names Fulani/Fulata, or "Fulitani, i've seen tv doc years ago and these people were named the , wudabe, in the tv documentry , i cant spell it correctly only phoneticlly , woo-dah-beh.they're so unique with their makeup :)

Yes - they have been called in European pronunciation Futa-be or Woodabe or simply Futa (also generically called Peul, Fula, Fulbe Fulani or Fellata depending on the region). An excellent book regarding the Woodabe is Nomads of Niger by Marion Van Offelen and Carol Beckwith. In my view its one of the most pictorially beautiful books on Africa to be found. The Woodabe are pretty special because the preserve the most ancient Fulani appearance both phenotypically and culturally - that is judging by the rock art and ancient Egyptian paintings. : )

Hi, my father is a Peul from The North-East of Senegel (Fouta Toro), my mother is Dutch and Im born in the Netherlands so for me its hard to find information about the cultural background of my father. My father also told me that he doesnt know why Peul are often so light-skinned and tall. This blog is the most interesting site Ive found so far! Thanks!

Hi Anonymous - you have an interesting ethnic background. Africa is also filled with interesting people from diverse ethnic heritages and exciting histories. Thanks for your compliments and please drop by soon as there's a lot more to come!

Hi, I took the African Ancestry test and they confirmed for me that my family on my mothers side are descendants of the Fulani people. I have many family members that are very tall! I now know why they are so tall! Thank you for all that you do!

Hi,I purchased The Golden Age of the Moor a few years ago. I stumbled upon your site today. I have a question about the language. I'm pretty sure your article in "Golden Age..." mentioned that the Fulani used to speak two different languages; one that was similar to Niger-Congo languages and one that wasn't. Can you elaborate on this a bit? And what sources mentioned these distinct languages? I've never found anything specific about this "other" language. Thanks!

DNA shows Libyans to have been originally white just like the art has been showing them in Ancient Egypt, the reason they can be traced back to Sub Sahara now is due to the y chromosome. They made the mistake of getting too close to black men, and that was the reason they are all brown today, but tall and whiter, with more intelligence and high cheek bones. Sorry but this entire blog is a moot point now. Amazing how you can find so much evidence to prove your point, but it really proves nothing but bias. BTW, the same thing has happened to ancient Egypt, and all ancient civilizations that had slaves. DNA shows that as the white civilizations mixed with the low class slaves, the destruction of it was eminent. That's because it brings down the IQ. The same is happening now in America the last 50 years. . .ever heard the term the dumbing down of America? It started out mainly white according to the census, but thanks to large variances in reproduction rates, those with dark skin are going to be a majority in only 30 years! When that has happened anywhere else in the world, we have the turning point of a civilization, to it's downfall. Do your research on that and you will see I'm right.

Hi Anonymous - sorry for the delay. I've been a little held up in getting back to people due to some work I’ve been doing. I had to look into what you were pointing out in my book, too. That statement about two separate languages was definitely a mistatement. It would have been more accurate to say the Fulani language was originally classified either as "hamitic" or Niger-Congo, which are of course two distinct language groups. They were not speaking two distinct languages at the time, however, it was believed they originally spoke another language group different then the present one now classified as Niger Congo. Today the most common consideration is that Fulani belongs for the most part to the Niger Congo group, related to Serer and Wolof. Needless to say most Fulani have little resemblance to Serer and Wolof which suggests language adoption within the past couple thousand years or so.

When my article was written I, myself, wasn't aware that there were populations of different origin that comprise Fulfulde or Fulani speakers. Since then, I have discovered that earlier colonial observers sometimes were at times speaking about populations that were actually partly Hausa (so-called Hausa-Fulani) or else those that were part Tekruri (otherwise called "Toucouleur") rather than simple or lesser modified nomadic Fulfulde-speaking groups called Woodabe and Bororo. It appears that some of these colonialists may not haven taken into account such Fulfulde-speakers were derived from a combined populations. It is possibly due to external elements and influences from Afroasiatic dialects, like Hausa or Arabic (the latter being another group certain Fulani have absorbed in more recent times), individual observers like Carl Meinhof, Maurice Delafosse and a Frank William Taylor had come to believe, rightly or wrongly, the Fulani language was hamitic or semitic. This is thought to have been based mainly on superfical or typological resemblances. One even went so far as to suggest the Aramaic language. Delafosse in particular thought the Fulani may have been derived from "Judaeo-Syrians". On the other hand, a man named Frank Taylor in 1921 suggested in a text, A First Grammar of the Adamawa Dialect of the Fulani Language, that the Fulani linguistic group may have been the parent group for the hamito –semitic or AfroAsiatic dialects. There is also the matter of the fact that the modern Woodabe in fact don't really consider or call themselves Fulani. So the problem and confusion is nearly the same as with the present Berbers, or Berber-speakers. The matter of who in fact are the populations of original Fulani or Fulfulde speakers? If the true Fulani are to be include mainly the nomads like Woodabe or Bororo, then there is every reason to believe that original biological population may have spoken a dialect similar to that which was spoken by the early Libyans or Libou, which appears to have been either a Nilo-Saharan or Afro-Asiatic dialect.

On the other hand it may be the case that the name Futa and Fulani and their dialect derives essentially from the Takruri people which would link it to the Nilo-Saharan or Mande (Niger Congo). Today the most common consideration is that modern Fulani dialects belong for the most part to the Niger-Congo group, and that the original Fulani speech developed in the Senegal region. This, however, would not mean such biologically and cultural distinctive groups as the nomadic Woodabe or Bororo originated there or spoke that language 3 and 4 thousand years ago. Although the latter had to have lived in that region for some time to have adopted those dialects before spreading back across Africa. Someone writing in the General History of Africa Vol III spoke of pre-Berber Saharan element in modern Fulani dialects. And today one also still finds books identifying the dialects as “hamitic”. The confusion thus continues, but only due to specialists not having strictly circumscribed and identified who their “Fulani” truly are. Hope that helps. Feel free to ask anything more.

Thanks for the reply...makes sense. I skimmed comment beneath mine and had to respond. I'm actually from this group (my father immigrated here). It's laughable when people from another continent entirely claim the success of Africans. 1. Western Europeans were the last to develop. The history of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain etc. really only takes off in the past 400 years. They weren't doing anything of note prior to that point. So, this idea that the likes of them were making moves and creating history in Africa, but not in their own region of the continent is wishful thinking. You should read up on the cannibalistic Druids. Those would be your ancestors. We don't know why they were cannibals- religious rituals, famine or the simple preference of human flesh to cereal. That area is ripe for discovery...dissertation-worthy.2. Prior to DNA testing, serological testing was used. For many groups in the Sahara/of Saharan origin, it was not accurate because people who "appeared" to be non-black had "black" serological profiles and people who appeared to be black had "white" serological profiles. The same thing can occur with genetic testing. In this region, genotype and phenotype don't always match up. 3. And yes, there were a lot of slaves in North Africa; the slave trade of Europeans was a thriving one. It was more extensive than the trans-Saharan slave trade at times. Using your logic, the admixture with those slaves is what brought North African history from its once-glorious perch. 4. In 2008 or 2009, National Geographic published a piece stating that the first civilization was in the Sahara. Pathetically, the author attempted to attribute that civilization to whites. The argument was identical to what colonists used 300 years ago about the Tuareg and Fulani. He employed the "Well, they don't look black to us...except for brown skin" argument. But, even he (with all of his delusions) had to concede in one, measly sentence that the founders of that civilization were probably Fulani/Tuareg ancestors. Among said groups, a significant portion has retained both culture and looks. It's undeniable. Any attempt to separate us from our own history and people simply doesn't stand. It's funny how the definition of race depends on convenience. I was born and raised here, in America. I look just like many Saharans. Yet, no white person is ever confused about my racial identity. We all know that I'm black. Height, bone-structure, hair and features don't change that. Yet, in the anthropological world I'm a dark white? When it's time to adopt my ancestry as "European-ish", I magically become a dark caucasian? Seems pretty fishy to me...

Thanks for the info about National Geographic, and its notion of an early civilization created by dark white or "Caucasian" Saharans. I was unaware that the magazine was still promoting that kind of silliness even in recent times. Since I still find it hard to believe, I will have to look up that issue. It would confirm once again, "hamitic" and "Mediterranean race" theory in the West is alive and well among laymen and "scholar" alike, and that people involved with National Geographic organization can't be trusted, and are part of a racist institution dangerous to African people and their history.

However, thankfully a lot of real scholars, for the most part, don't engage in such obsolete thinking. : )

Heil Angela - Actually the point is not moot. And, my point will be that you need to read the blogpost you've commented on and ABSORB and stop trying to dream away documented history because you want to conceive of yourself as better than the black American folk they still make walk in the back of restaurants in your county down there. Beautiful area by the way, down your neck of the woods, with all those blue rolling mountain ridges with the little churches and their spires sticking up out of them. Almost Heaven. Homeland of the banjo triracial Melungeon (probably from the Angolan word "malungu" I might add). Maybe we're related or something, cause I know I'm related to everyone in Roanoke and Franklin County area nearby whose been their since the colonial era.

Wouldn't that be great!?

I just didn't like that hillbilly music down there on some of the radio stations that sounded like it came before the music in the "Deliverance" movie. It was truly scary. (I'm not saying I didn't like that movie song though. That banjo music we blacks originated always gets the jig up. And that song I must admit, was a real knee- slapper.) So I'm so glad to see you like bluegrass, too!.

By the way you haven't provided any evidence whatsoever against what was said in the post and I can't really address wishes and this is surely not a place for political commentary either. Although I've decided my multicultural blog is going to have some of that. I will say this though to inform the readers of this blog. If the Libyans that I am talking about in this post were represented originally as white as you say, we wouldn't have statements from European archaeologists and other early scholars stating they were not. We wouldn't have comments in books like the following: “The brun Libyan type is THE ONLY ONE PORTRAYED in the Old Empire, the xanthrochroids predominate in the New Empire representations.” and "The intrusive xanthrochroids…DO NOT APPEAR before the XII dynasty… It safe to say that THEY WERE IMMIGRANTS.” pp. 40-41 Oric Bates, The Eastern Libyans 1914. (Xanthrochroids means "whites", Angela. )

Thus, some dark brown Africans in Libya absorbed some incoming FOREIGNERS - AT A LATE PERIOD - probably in the era of "the people of the Sea". These white immigrant MEN likely were absorbed into the predominant black African population that had been there since the Neolithic. And of course as you must know by now, the people on both sides of the Mediterranean were originally the same black people judging from both forensic evidence and rock art, whether you like it or not.

In any case it also looks like some of the representations found in books were just versions of Libyans with the paint faded away which people like Lepsius chose to represent or recast as colorless or white.

This has been made clear by the discovery of Dr. Charles Finch who visited the site not long ago. I am pretty sure I put his commentary on another part of this blog, but since it is not in the post i think I will add it somewhere. "Lepsius falsified the color of the Tamehou figure. I only know this because I actually went into the tomb of Rames III in 1995 – one of the few times it was open to the public – specifically to look at that Panel of Races. As is known, there are 4 racial types as depicted by Lepsius, but what is not known is that the Panel is reproduced 4 times with the same figures. I don’t know why. But that is not the issue; what is the issue is that the figure of the Tamehou in the tomb of Rameses III is NOT white, but a deep reddish brown, looking for all the world like Masai in coloring. One would ONLY know this by looking at the Panel ‘face-to-face’ inside the tomb. Again, Lepsius (c. 1844) – it must have been deliberate – depicted the Tamehou in the wrong color!"

That is what is posted on another blog in response to something I wrote. And I was glad, but not surprised to learn of the lengths Europeans have gone to change the complexion of ancient peoples. DNA does not show that ancient white civilizations mixed with low class slaves in ancient North Africa to create the modern Fulani or ancient Libyans, or else you would have provided some evidence for it. That is just what you want to believe to make yourself feel better. You can not click your heels together like you are in the Land of Oz and make the past into something it wasn't, Angela. If you want, you can do YOUR research and come bach and show us low IQ types what was said in this post was inaccurate. Low IQ people especially need some evidence. Something that can help them understand. Get it?

BTW - I think its less than 20 years that those with dark skin will be in the majority in the U.S.. Don't hate, just celebrate! And remember the old sayings – “if you can’t beat ‘em, - join’em!” And "its always darkest before dawn and lastly "what you fear most, shall come upon you ". ; )

Don't neglect to read the other comment to your post someone made above. And thanks for contributing. Feel free to come back now – hear! If you have the evidence to the contrary. I'll be glad to look into it.

I just googled and found these. I had remembered that the guy was from UChicago and was searching for dinosaur fossils in Niger when he stumbled upon the civilization. I also want to emphasize that this was the southern Sahara (I normally don't make the distinction since I, like many of us, have family in both North and West Africa, but given Angela's comment, I will). This is West African territory. These people were and are Saharan and West African. Anyway, Dana, if you do some more digging, you should be able to find the Nat Geo article (it was about 6-8 pgs), but these should put you on the right track:http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2008/08/14/stone-age-graveyard-reveals-lifestyles-green-sahara-two-successive-cultures-thrivhttp://www.pbs.org/program/skeletons-sahara/ It seems like PBS had a special that I didn't know about.

I'm really happy to have stumbled across your site. I thought your essay in Golden Age was really intriguing. I tried looking you up years ago without luck. I wanted to ask you that linguistic question. Now, ~3 years later, I got my answer! So, I'm glad to finally connect. As a college student, I started researching this in my spare time. After about 5 years, I was satisfied with my knowledge base and stopped researching (I had read Arabian, North/West/East African and southern European primary and secondary sources...even dusted off my Latin to read about Mauretania Caesarensis). But, after a 2 year break, my curiosity was piqued again. I was reading the Bible and saw that a place in Africa called Pul was referenced. You can guess why my eyebrows raised. And somehow Google Images led me here! When I get some free time, I'll definitely check out the rest of the blog.

You can try the book Nomads of Niger for a start, by Maria von Offelen. If you read French there are some good or informative books by Amadou Hampate Ba. Unfortunately, not much worthwhile of late has been written about Africans including the Woodabe due to the modern emphasis on looking at materialistic, economic and political perspectives of cultural development. So if you are interested in finding something about conflict between Fulani cattle pastoralists and other agriculturalists or the dessication processes in the Sahel you will likely find something on Fulani, but not much about the thousands of years of culture or the soul of the people.

Should have mentioned there are in fact a few articles out there that do justice to the Woodabe culture to be found in unexpected places. One for example would be - Birds of the Bush: Wodaabe Distinctions of Society and Nature by Kristin Loftsdottir, University of Iceland Published in the "Nordic Journal of African Studies" 10(3): 280-298 (2001)